C3: COCKTAILS & CHRISTIAN CONVERSATIONS meets 5pm, Fri, Sept 12

C3: COCKTAILS & CHRISTIAN CONVERSATIONS
Friday, Sept 12

• Bring your favorite adult beverage for conversartion  and artwork inspired by this week’s scripture.
• Zoom gathering:
  • Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83028442916, Meeting ID: 830 2844 2916
    • Alternatives:
      • One tap mobile +19294362866,,83028442916#
      • Dial by touch tone phone:  +1 929 436 2866, Meeting ID: 830 2844 2916
• The scripture and additional resources may be found below.

• BibleProject overview video: Book of Judges: https://youtu.be/kOYy8iCfIJ4
• BibleProject article: Guide to Book of Judges: https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-judges/
• BibleProject podcast: Women Who Slay Dragons: https://bibleproject.com/podcasts/women-who-slayed-dragons/
• BibleProject article: Judges and Messianic Hope: https://bibleproject.com/articles/judges-messianic-hope/

JUDGES 4 — Deborah: Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army… had 900 chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years, they cried to the Lord for help.Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.She held court under the Palm of Deborah … and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak … and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you 10,000 men … and lead them up to Mount Tabor.  I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”
Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
     “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.”  So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh … and ten thousand men went up under his command …
Now Heber the Kenite … the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law … pitched his tent by the great tree … near Kedesh…
When they told Sisera that Barak … had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera summoned … all his men and his 900 chariots fitted with iron.
Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” …. At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled … all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left.
Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
     “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up
“Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’”
But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead … On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.24 And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.

JUDGES 5—The Song of Deborah: On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:  “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves—praise the Lord!  “Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I, even I, will sing to  the Lord; I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song…
The mountains quaked before the Lord… the God of Israel…Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel. God chose new leaders when war came to the city gates, but not a shield or spear was seen among 40,000 in Israel. My heart is with Israel’s princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the Lord! … The remnant of the nobles came down; the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty… The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; yes, Issachar was with Barak, sent under his command into the valley …  The people of Zebulun risked their very lives; so did Naphtali on the terraced fields. Kings came, they fought, the kings of Canaan fought … From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.”
“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,  most blessed of tent-dwelling women. He asked for water, and she gave him milk;  in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk. Her hand reached for the tent peg,  er right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,  she shattered and pierced his temple. At her feet he sank, he fell…dead …  “So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun  when it rises in its strength.” 
Then the land had peace forty years.